The average bitrate is a pretty good indication of what you need to cover it (and again, throw in some slack if you like to be sure). If your TV is limited to 100mbit, you can buffer ahead when the bitrate is lower, and you have buffer for when it's higher. For the piece of media you've selected, if your TV can handle that bandwidth via it's network connection with some slack, you're fine. Streaming media isn't byte-by-byte instantaneous, it's buffered. It plays h265 4K 10but HDR just fine, so the 'slow' interface is good enough.Ĭlick to expand.It's not a metric of quality per se, it's a way to ensure you can stream things. The newer model in the lounge is 'smart' and the interface is 'slow' compared to the Pi, but I don't care. My older model Bravia in the bedroom has no 'smart' capabilities, so it's got an RPi4 attached. All I want is the content, and an extra few seconds delay to get to a 30-120 minute long piece of content is zero concern to me.Īnd extending that thought process, I'm also not interested in spending hundreds of dollars on a device that decodes content equally as well, but makes the menus a few seconds faster. But again, I'm not spending hours in interfaces, and quite honestly I wonder why people do.

If you're spending hours in interfaces on any of devices, then sure, go for a more expensive option to make that a better experience. Similar discussions exist in gaming (and retrogaming too) around 'nice interfaces' in content launchers, and again, my response is the same there. I'm spending seconds at most, not even minutes, in a menu. I know what I want to watch, I go to that content, and I watch it.

However 'interface speed' is an issue I personally give zero shits about. The OP specifically asked about streaming, so I answered the question about streaming. Click to expand.I have this discussion a lot with people, and not just about streaming media.

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